The aim of our research project is to study prolonged and successfull educational careers in higher education and to picture individual and institutional reasons that lie behind different patterns of participation. The research questions are: (1) What kind of differences are there between higher education institutions, universities and polytechnics (universities of applied sciences) as well as educational fields and regions with respect to prolongation of studies? (2) How does withdrawal from higher education differ between educational institutions, fields and regions? (3) Are there fields of education or groups of students where educational re-choice and non-linear transition are more frequent than elsewhere? Participation patterns differ in higher education nationally (Raffe 2008). For example, a quantitative British study brought up that strongest female students are more likely to drop out than those close to the mean, and they are probably making such a choice in order to change to a highly esteemed education and to have better worklife options (Arumpalam, Naylor & Smith 2002). In Finland, participation rates in tertiary education are particularly high compared to other Nordic countries which may result in a specific national profile in the patterns of participation (Nordic Statistical Yearbook 2009). Therefore we aim to look at the nation-spesific factors behind educational orientation and mobility between sectors on the scale of all entrants. Possible shifts in the patterns of participation are continuously under investigation in the age of massified higher education, diversification, globalisation, knowledge society and individualisation (Muller & Gangl 2003, Teichler 2008, Brooks & al. 2009, Schoon & Silbereisen 2009). However, Finnish patterns of participation have not been studied on the scale of the whole population despite that Finnish higher education students´ career mobility was recently compared to the career mobility of German, Italian and British students in the REFLEX project (Lindberg 2009, Allen & van der Velden 2007). Other quantitative Finnish studies on higher education have been based on surveys and limited number of fields or institutions. They have mostly explored transitions to work, employment and educational orientation or experiences of previous education (see e.g. Korhonen & Sainio 2006, Stenström, Laine & Valkonen 2005, Vuorinen & Valkonen 2003; 2007, Virolainen & Valkonen 2002). In the process of the study the accumulative progress of all entrants´ study weeks is followed year by year, whereafter the entrants are first delivered into two groups, the group of those who have prolonged their studies and the group of successful graduates. The sub-groups of those who have prolonged their studies will include e.g. drop-outs, those whose educational careers are non-linear or who are actually part-time students because of work or family reasons. Significant and large sub-groups will be chosen for further and more detailed investigation.

The target group of the research is all entrants to higher education in Finland in between 2001-2005. In 2007, the number of polytechnic graduates was around 22 000 and at the same time there were ca 14 000 graduates from universities. The data of the project include various official statistics collected by Statistics Finland, i.e. information on parents´ income and education, earlier education, entrance to education, progress of studies, educational institutions, graduates, taxes, participation in working life, employment, incomes and regional unemployability rates. First, the data will be used to describe groups of students and to find possible differences between institutions and their students´ completion rates. Secondly, multivariate analysis are completed in order to find explanations for spesific participation patterns. In the latter part of the project also other kinds of institution and field spesific data will be collected, e.g. documents and interviews.

The results of the research project will picture various patterns of participation in higher education and bring up individual and institutional reasons that lie behind them. Later in the last phases of the project we aim to compare the results with participation patterns in other countries